Comments on: film photography: 5 things I really miss

By: Shanti M

Shanti M — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:30:58 +0000

I started photographing at age 5. My grandpa gave me his old point-and-shoot from the 60’s (he was a photographer) that ran on these HUGE film rolls (I don’t remember what kind…). There was a mandatory flash and no zoom and the focus was in the viewfinder…. but I loved it

I bought an Olympus film camera in 2000 for a few hundred dollars and used that one up until I got my Digital Elph now my Canon Powershot SD1000.

I’m thinking of buying another camera come January as I continue to get more serious about photography - even as just a hobby. I’d really love the new Nikon D90 and I think I’m going to spring for it. I believe you’ve visited my blog (?) and so you know I’m out of debt… but I want to have more emergency fund savings built up before I launch into buying a $1300 camera+lens. I am excited, though.

Anyway, clearly I am well on my way into digital photography - I have been using PhotoShop “just for fun” since I was 12, but now I use it for work too. So digital has practically been in my blood (!) but I still remember film photography.

I miss, most of all, the time I put into my photos back then. I would really take the time to set up the lighting, frame the shot, get the perfect conditions. I am still as passionate, but I take less time. I’ll take 40 pictures instead of 2 and fix them later.

There’s something to be said for only having so many pictures in a roll of film, that you have to pay for.

By: Alvin Kim

Alvin Kim — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:31:50 +0000

I’m a sixteen year old and am taking a photo class at the local college, and boy am I happy. There’s no lab fee and the class was only $20. We’re shooting B&W film with old-school film SLR’s, mine’s a panel readout but the majority of the students are using the older models. I have one but it doesn’t have any batteries.
I honestly can say taht the smells are AWESOME.
I don’t know but it just has such an appeal about it.

I love how shooting film forces you to think about what you are going to shoot because of the cost as opposed to shooting digital where you can snap photos without worrying about losing frames.
I don’t like having to wait til the next day to see my photos, but it does make me anticipate it and the longer I wait, the more excited I am once I see the contact sheets and enlargements. The contact sheets themselves are pieces of art themselves!

I love the complete control you have of how the composition turns out and how you have to think about everything about it like shutter speed, aperture, etc. you have to be exact.
But even so, when you enlarge it, you have the possibility of making it come out well.

I don’t know I love how digital can be digitally enhanced and edited, but film requires much more skill and technique. Anyone can edit and make their photos look better if they’re digital, but film requires you to get it right the first time.

I still gotta say, my canon 40D > canon elan IIe, but in the end, I love them both.

Canon is the best! yay
Although…the Nikon D300 DOES make me salivate uncontrollably…

- Alvin Kim

By: PhotoNetCast #6 - Some Thoughts on Analog and Digital Photography | PhotoNetCast

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:33:12 +0000

[...] film photography: 5 things I really miss [...]

By: pro photo life » Blog Archive » around the net, volume 2

pro photo life » Blog Archive » around the net, volume 2 — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:07:47 +0000

[...] of the most popular posts on prophotolife has been Five Things I Really Miss About Film Photography (more looks at old school photography will be upcoming). If you liked that one, Brian Auer has [...]

By: Ed Zabel

Ed Zabel — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:16:45 +0000

I miss putting a lupe to the ground glass on a view camera and using the now seemingly useless ability to tilt and swing my way to detail impossibilities on a sheet of film.
I miss loading 4×5 film. Transparency to be specific. I miss flipping dark slides, mixing chemicals and burning in with only my hands.
The sound of gently running water and dark amber light with the mixed scent of sulfur and acetic acid.
I miss being an expert at making a perfect chrome.
I miss the people who know what a chrome was.
Cable release; Yes. I still have it. Cost a small fortune for what it was and it was worth it.
I still have my first view camera too.
I would never go back and away from the miracle that I work with every day now. The list of things I miss is actually short considering the amount of change in this industry and the amount of time I have been in it. I do wish that there was some use for all of the processing information that I still possess. Feeling old as I write this….

By: Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:57:54 +0000

I just got back into photography after about fifteen years of nothing more than point and shoot cameras. It is funny the things I miss. I do miss the manual winding of the film. And I miss the filters as well, especially ones used for white balance.

But what I miss the most is something that they never should have taken away. I miss the split focus screen that gave you the ability to quickly (relatively speaking) and accurately focus manually. I know that auto focus is fast and usually very reliable, but sometimes I want to manual focus and it is nearly impossible with many of todays DSLRs. I know you can buy those screens after market, but I don’t have one yet on my camera and I miss it.

By: foo

foo — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:50:42 +0000

I started photographing with my grandpas old Leica when I was a child in the 80’s. Got a point-and-shoot Canon when I was nine and decided to use my fathers Kodak from 1965, when I was 16. At 18 I bought a EOS 300.
I never stopped using the Kodak, as its 50mm lens gives you extraordinary images.
After finding out about the increase of possibilities a self-operated darkroom holds, I did almost only B/W for some years until I moved into a new flat, where the bathroom couldn’t easily be refashioned to be a dark room. This is where I nearly stopped taking photos.
When I bought this Olympus point-and-shoot digital camera last year, I rediscovered how much fun photography is, even with the limited possibilities of a point-and-shoot. A few months ago I accidentally got a Canon A-1 with a set of fine lenses (so many people going digital, so little space …), so I also started experimenting with this fine piece. Working analogical is sometimes annoying, but some of the results and some of the experiences are simply unmatched.
Nevertheless: in a few days my new EOS 400D will be arriving and I’m really looking forward to that!
The inhibition treshold is simply lower with a dslr, as the effort to get a grip on the results is just so much lower and I just have no time to spend in a darkroom.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:40:00 +0000

I still shoot a lot of film for fun stuff, but digital has the chimp factor and there is never that hesitation while you think “Am I about to waste another frame with this shot?” which every now and again makes me miss a moment.

Buttttt, I love that I’ve got a full frame camera and a fast prime lens for 1/20th of the cost of a digital setup, I love that I can use Fuji Velvia, which knocks any Canon or Nikon sensor out of the park, I love the fact that my completly mechanical camera has little clockwork gears that you can hear whirring on a long exposure, I love that my camera is half the size of a DSLR and made from metal not plastic, I love that people think “Oh thats cute” when I show them my rangefinder with b&w film loaded, rather than the reaction you get to a pro-looking DSLR which is “I don’t have my makeup on, panic and look stressed!”

Jeeze, I could go on for hours…

By: Jim Talkington

Jim Talkington — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:40:01 +0000

I’ve never used the Rollei film so I’m not sure about its composition. “Back in the day” we would blow dry negs really fast with a hair dryer when we were on deadline. This really edge to edge curled them (it’s film abuse, really) but they could eventually be flattened if you sandwiched the neg sleeve in the pages of a big book for a few days. Conventional film would get really nice and flat. I’d try it with the Rollei.

I also carefully tape the sides of the film into the holder if it’s totally necessary in order to get it flatter (just using the frame number edge).

A while back I tried some Hungarian film from Freestyle (oh man, I forget the factory who makes it) and it curled into a ball like crazy because it was so thin. It’s not edge to edge curl so I could get it into a neg holder eventually but it would jump out of my hands like a spring if I didn’t pay attention. I haven’t found anything that works to flatten it yet, so I’m in the same boat.

By: Arne

Arne — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:32:10 +0000

It’s so funny that you mentioned the smell of film as just this weekend I was opening a few rolls of film (tri-x) getting ready to do some shooting and I caught myself sniffing the new rolls and thinking about how that was one of the joys of shooting film….

One of the things I hate about film is negative curl… just processed a roll of rollei retro 400 and the edge to edge curls is so huge I’m not sure I’m going to be able to scan it… any pointers?